Heaven gained an angel January 24, 2024, when Darlene Emma Hughes passed away at the age of 93 surrounded by her family at her home in Hamilton. She was born July 19, 1930 to William and Rena Harris at McAllister, MT at the Inn by Ennis Lake. A doctor from Butte was visiting and fishing, he was brought in off the lake to deliver the baby girl. She joined an older sister Lois.
Darlene attended and graduated from Ennis High School. She worked at the bakery in Ennis after school and after graduation. She also helped Bill and Rena at the McAllister Cash Grocery. On September 16, 1948, Darlenee and Thomas Hughes were married. They took over Tom and Emily Hughes’ ranch a mile from McAllister. Darlene became a ranch wife, raising a big garden, helping with the cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and horses and driving the tractors at haying season. She also helped her parents with the store and cabins and visited her grandparents Jake and Emma Harris. Money was short and work was hard but it was a loving community and large extended family.
Paula was born in 1951, I’m sure Grama Harris (Emma), Mother (Rena), Aunt Lois and Cousin Colleen were ecstatic to have another baby to coddle. Terry was born in 1953. Doc Losee had to be called away from the rodeo to deliver her. By then there were two more cousins. Many good times were had at the Gramas and Aunt Lois’. I’m sure Mom had her hands full with two tom girls that were outside with the chickens, pigs and horses. We could hear her two miles away yell “Paulaaaa.”
She canned vegetables out of her garden and ones that we picked at Harriet Clay’s Garden down by the lake with Charlotte and her boys. We would pick peas and beans for hours, so we thought our reward was a swim in the lake. Then we had to go home and pop beans and hull peas for hours again!!
All the ranch families were good friends and Mom helped cook at all the brandings. She was an excellent cook, her beginnings I’m sure came from Grama Harris and Rena. Cabbage tamales and pasties were always a favorite. She loved to cook family dinners and even in the last years she would help with everything. She fattened up Dad, the son in laws and grandsons by making them clean up the last of the meal. And we always had dessert.
After Paula and I were in junior high, Mom went to work in Ennis at the Madison Valley Telephone Company. That must have been a big step for her to go out and get a job. She was very fond of the Clarks. In 1969 the ranching had become too much work for Dad and they sold the ranch and moved to Hamilton. They found a place up Sleeping Child where they lived until 2000. Mom applied for a job at the courthouse and was hired by the Clerk & Recorder for bookwork. June Moore retired in a short time and she was elected as Clerk & Recorder. She stayed working there for about 15 years. She made numerous friends and enjoyed serving the public.
In her spare time, she sewed and made many of her own clothes. She went to cake decorating school and made many beautiful birthday and wedding cakes. She was very talented and crafty. She crocheted beautiful doilies and was also a good knitter. She loved turquoise jewelry and had a little store at one time and made suncatcher earrings. She was always having Dad do a remodel of the house or camp trailer.
When we moved to Hamilton in 1969, Paula and I joined the Mountettes and Mom and Dad made lifelong friends with some of the members. They camped and traveled with Don and Vi Thomas and Dick and Sandy Singleton for years.
After her retirement they all wintered in Arizona, becoming some of the first snowbirds. They boondocked at the Wild Horse Ranch south of Tucson. The grandsons and Paula and I visited a few times and were taken on 4-wheeler rides and had many potlucks. She made many friends down there and they would come in the summers to visit. In 1992, Darlene and Terry took a month-long trip to Norway. She had met a 3rd cousin and we went to where her Grampa Jake Harris had lived and met many relatives that she stayed in touch with. In 1995, Mom and Dad and Don and Vi made a trip to Africa and met more relatives of hers. They traveled to the Oregon coast to visit friends and made a trip to Alaska to fish. As they got up in age Dad wasn’t up to the traveling but Mom kept busy. She took a part time job at a shoe store for a while, then went to work at Tristans Stained Glass. If you drive by the Corvallis Methodist Church, look up in the top windows and you’ll see some beautiful stained-glass panels that she helped make. She became very involved in the Senior Center, and again she made some very good friends and became President for many years. I’m sure she made a big difference down there.
Mom supported Paula and I in all our horse activities and lives, still wanting to know about what we were doing and where we were going. She went to many grandson and great grandkids activities. She kept involved with all of us. She was very fond of her niece, Colleen. We kidded her that she was the favorite daughter. She did many kind things for Mom and Mom loved her dearly. Mom was her hair fashion model when she went to beauty school many years ago. I’m sure Mom thought it was great to have someone fuss over her as we were pretty busy riding horses and chasing cows.
Mom watched a lot of the old Westerns on TV and read books with Dad in his final years. She was always a caregiver to him. She was a caregiver to all of us, taking Wes and Kody in when his house burned down, going with me to all of Russ’s surgeries when he was a young boy, going with me to all of my surgeries, going with Dad to all of his surgeries, supporting Paula with her ranch life and having Clifford move in. She continued to watch Westerns on TV and started doing puzzles to pass the time in the last year. She still played Tripoli with us and her mind was very sharp. She was a wonderful person and will be greatly missed by all of us.
She was preceded in death by her parents, sister Lois and husband Tom. She is survived by her daughters Paula Plettenberg, Terry Reed (Cliff), grandsons Clifford Reed, Russ Reed (Melissa), Wes Plettenberg (Regina), great grandkids Katelynn Reed (Jon Bounds), Ashlee Reed, Jayden Vogan (Anissa), Levi Vogan (Alex), Keegen and Brady Reed, Kody Plettenberg (Karmen), Zack Wilson, Zane Wilson (Jacie), great great grandkids Kiya, Emmett and Jax Bounds and niece and nephews, and her faithful little dog companion Bubba of 16 years. Rest in peace Mom, we love you.
A Memorial Service will be held later this summer at the Grantsdale Cemetery. Condolences may be left for the family at www.dalyleachchapel.com
Memorials can be made to the Bitterroot Humane Shelter or charity of choice.